


Marginally Curious

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2017 [32]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 05:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10326239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: For the comment_fic prompt: SGA AU, McShep, widower Rodney is surprised when his daughter's new math teacher is not only NOT stupid, but also pretty damn hot





	

Rodney was checking over JJ's homework when he noticed something on one of her math worksheets. "What's this?"

JJ, who was sending a text message to Madison - how did she type so fast? She could barely tie her own shoelaces - glanced up. "What's what, Daddy?"

Rodney stared at the margin of her worksheet. He'd scribbled down a partial equation in the margin after Radek called him from the lab, frantic with excitement. The equation had been completed and solved. JJ had always evinced a strong disinterest for science and math; she adored English and Art (thanks, Uncle Kaleb). Rodney knew she was bright for her age - Madison was, too (thanks, McKay genes) - but she'd always gotten perfectly average grades.

Too perfectly average; Rodney suspected she was having him on. Jennifer's death had been hard on the both of them, but definitely harder on her.

The last three years had just been - hard.

Rodney showed her the worksheet. "This equation, right here. Did you...did you do this?"

JJ huffed and rolled her eyes, made a deliberate show of lowering her phone, and leaned in to look. "Oh. No. That was Mr. Sheppard."

Mr. Sheppard, her new math teacher, the one who was awful at responding to Rodney's emails. JJ's old math teacher, Miss Carter, had always been prompt - if a little longsuffering and condescending - about answering Rodney's email inquiries into JJ's progress.

"He solved it?"

"He's kinda fidgety, gets bored easily. He scribbles on our worksheets all the time when we take too long to solve a problem," JJ said, and Rodney was outraged.

The teacher doodled while he was supposed to be helping his students?

"Usually he draws cool spaceships and stuff, but I guess he poked at your math thingie." JJ shrugged and went back to texting.

Rodney had assumed all those space ships and fighter jets in the margins were JJ's. Uncle Kaleb liked a baffling combination of literature and the US Air Force, which made no sense, because he was Canadian. He'd let JJ watch Top Gunat much too early an age.

But this Mr. Sheppard character was smart, whoever he was. He'd solved the equation properly. Even reduced it down to a simpler form.

Rodney sent the man another email, but after three days there was no response, and enough was enough. He picked an afternoon that JJ was at her after-school dance class (Madison was taking ballet, so JJ was taking ballet), and he went to the school to have an in-person chat with Mr. Sheppard, the lazy and disinterested (but admittedly intelligent) math teacher.

That was probably why he was a math teacher - he was too lazy to apply himself toward more productive forms of mathematics. If he could solve that equation in his head while supposedly helping JJ with fractions, he had to have a phenomenal brain. He was probably one of those fat oafs who still lived in his mother's basement and taught just enough to feed his World of Warcraft habit or something.

Rodney went to knock on the classroom door and saw that the door was ajar. There were voices inside.

"I'm doing you a favor. If you answer these parent emails right now, Elizabeth won't freak out and drag you into her office and talk at you like you're a bad kid. If you weren’t such a good teacher, she’d probably fire you at this rate."

"C'mon, Evan -"

"This isn't Afghanistan, I'm not your staff officer anymore, and I won't be covering your ass on paperwork. Now type, Mister."

"You sound like my wife."

"In your dreams."

"More like my nightmares. If I put the moves on you, Ronon would tear my limbs off and beat me with them."

" _I'll_ tear your limbs off and beat you with them if you don't start typing."

Rodney pushed open the door and saw two dark silhouettes backlit by the harsh blue glow of a computer screen, tucked into the corner at the desk.

"Mr. Sheppard?" he asked.

The man at the computer jumped up. "That would be me." He cast a triumphant look at the other man and leaned across the desk to offer his hand. "Pleasure to meet you. And you are -?"

Rodney crossed the room to shake his hand, ready with a snippy comment, and paused. Because Mr. Sheppard was hot.

He was the type of hot Rodney would never even have dared to ask out back in high school or college (before he'd met Jennifer).

Mr. Sheppard had bright hazel-green eyes, artfully messy dark hair, was sinfully lean.

"Rodney McKay."

"JJ's father," Sheppard said, and his face lit up. "The physicist. JJ's told me so much about you. She says you're very brilliant."

"I was coming to inquire about the emails I sent you," Rodney said, and Sheppard had the good grace to wince.

The other man - who was handsome in his own right, with bright blue eyes and high cheekbones and broad shoulders - coughed pointedly.

"I was just about to get to those," Sheppard said. "But my email's been kind of acting up. Is something wrong with JJ? She's always very well-behaved in class, and she does well on her assignments." He looked anxious and concerned, which Rodney hadn't been expecting from a man who doodled on his students worksheets. "I know I only have her for another quarter and the change midyear was difficult for everyone, but I don't have any concerns about her."

Rodney had been all geared up to tell Sheppard that the concerns were about him, but he swallowed them down. "No, JJ's fine, and I'm pleased with her performance in her class. I just had a question. About an equation you solved."

Sheppard's brow furrowed. "Equation?"

"On the margin of one of JJ's worksheets."

Sheppard shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't really remember." He scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sometimes I doodle on the kids' worksheets."

"It was a very difficult equation," Rodney said.

"I guess not so difficult that I remember it?" Sheppard shrugged. "Sorry I can't be more help. Unless - unless I was interfering with your classified work? In which case I deeply apologize -"

"No, not at all," Rodney said. "I was impressed by your work. I hadn't expected it from -"

"Ah. A grade school math teacher?" Sheppard smiled wryly.

"Yes," Rodney admitted.

"Wasn't always a grade school math teacher," Sheppard said, and Rodney remembered he'd overheard the other man - Ethan or something - talk about being in Afghanistan, about being a staff officer.

"It pains me to admit this," Rodney said, "but the mathematicians I work with on a daily basis aren't nearly as brilliant as you. Do you - do work on the side? At all?"

Sheppard frowned. "Don't you do research at a think tank?"

"Yes."

"Ouch for your mathematicians, then. I don't really work on the side, though. I mean - this job is my retirement, really. I like kids, I like math, and it's low-stress."

Rodney, who'd hosted JJ's last birthday party solo - thirty twelve-year-old girls at a park - couldn't imagine that teaching was particularly low-stress.

"Well," Rodney said, "your brilliance, however casual for you, was much appreciated."

"You're welcome, Mr. McKay." Sheppard shrugged.

"Please, call me Rodney."

"In that case, call me John."

John Sheppard. A perfectly ordinary name for an extraordinarily brilliant man.

John looked Rodney up and down, his expression one Rodney couldn't quite interpret. "But you know what? Summer's coming up. I'll need something to keep me busy. If you wanted, I could do some work. On the side. For you."

"Really?" Rodney winced at how eager he sounded, but John nodded.

"Yeah. So we should talk about it sometime. Maybe over dinner?"

Rodney nodded. "Of course. But I don't really go to restaurants - few of them take my food allergies seriously. When could you come over for dinner?" His mind raced with the possibilities, all the projects that could go forward with John helping him.

John cleared his throat. "Well, while I'm still teaching JJ, me coming to your house for dinner might seem...unprofessional. But once the school year is over, I could come - whenever."

The other man coughed pointedly again, and the tips of John's ears turned red.

And then Rodney had the sneaking suspicion. "Are you...are you asking me out on a date?"

"Yes. Yes, I am. I was trying to be subtle -"

The other man crossed the room and closed the door quickly, took up post in front of it like some kind of sentinel.

"- but apparently subtlety isn't really your thing."

"No, it's not," Rodney said. "But I accept. Once the school year is finished. Just one more quarter, right?"

John smiled. "Right."

"In the meantime," Rodney said, "thanks for all you do. For JJ."

"She's a great girl, Rodney. You should be proud of how well you're raising her."

"I am," Rodney said. "Well, I'd better get going. It was great to meet you." He offered his hand again.

John accepted it, and the brief brush of contact sent electricity down Rodney's spine. "Great to meet you, too. I'll reply to your emails, I promise."

"Excellent." Rodney waved and headed for the door.

The other man opened it for him, closed it after him.

Rodney felt like he was floating on air all the way home.


End file.
